Canterbury Scene Pioneers 4

Phil Miller / Pip Pyle

Matching Mole, Hatfield And The North, National Health

Canterbury Scene Pioneers 4

written by Alan Freeman

This feature is the story of two of the most prolific and widely travelled of musicians on the Canterbury Scene: guitarist Phil Miller and drummer Pip Pyle. These musicians were key to the development and sound of a number of groups that are some of the most important in British 1970s prog-rock/fusion.

As with many such musicians in the "Canterbury Scene", neither were from Canterbury at all: Philip Adam Miller (b. 22 January 1949, Barnet, Hertfordshire) and Philip "Pip" Pyle (b. 4 April 1950, Sawbridgeworth) first met pre-school in the town of Sawbridgeworth (halfway between Harlow and Bishop's Stortford, NNE from London) and became best friends so we're told. That's the simple story. But life's always more complex than that, and moving on over a decade or so, both became involved in music. Phil was self-taught on guitar from the age of 8, "playing seriously since 15" to quote Phil himself. Pip apparently took a few lessons from jazz drummer Buzz Greene, but is also largely self-taught. It seems that both had been playing together in various bands/projects until they joined Bruno's Blues Band, led by Phil's older brother Steve Miller (no, not the...) in 1966 when everything came together, and so the actual story begins...

Delivery

I don't know if there was ever any Bruno in Bruno's Blues Band, but by 1968 they decided to move on from blues after being joined by jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill, becoming Steve Miller's Delivery with Carol Grimes (vocals) and Roy Babbington (bass).

The only document of the original Delivery is the one album FOOLS MEETING, released in 1970, when Lol had already left the band. It's an odd album though, and one that I've never really been able to appreciate. You can tell that what we have here is a really hot fusion band full of fresh ideas, about half the album is such creative stuff, involving unusual time signatures, intricate jigsaw like arrangements, and dazzling interplay/solos. But the problem for me is Carol Grimes, not that I dislike her vocals, it's just that when she's present she's just too much, with lyrics that are more like a rant and not that interesting either to my ears. It amounts to an album that sounds like two different bands, 1) an excellent fusion outfit, and 2) a British answer to Jefferson Airplane?

You can tell though the roots of what was to come. It is also obvious that they'd heard Soft Machine, and we're told that they became friends after meeting at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. But, as in many bands, tensions set-in, and Pip quit the group. So Pip became a bit of a wandering drummer for a while, playing on one tour with Chicken Shack, and then briefly in an early incarnation of Steve Hillage's Khan. Apparently Robert Wyatt recommended Pip to Daevid Allen who needed a drummer to finish his Banana Moon album, which in turn led to Pip joining Gong from May 1971 to early spring 1972 (featuring on the albums CAMEMBERT ELECTRIQUE and CONTINENTAL CIRCUS). Meanwhile Laurie Allen stepped-in as Delivery's drummer, who also then went on to Gong!

Carol Grimes And Delivery - press clip

Here we have the start of the tangled "Canterbury Scene" web! It all gets so complex, especially with a number of bands that came and went without recording anything, like when Delivery fell apart, the Miller brothers formed the short-lived band: DC & The MBs (that's Dyble/Coxhill & The Miller Brothers) with Judy Dyble from Fairport Convention (although I know her best from a few tracks with proto King Crimson). They were apparently a more improv jazz based outfit who did a tour of Holland and a few domestic gigs before splitting up. It seems that no recordings exist at all.

Matching Mole

Now we have a major kink in the story, the formation of the first Canterbury supergroup in October 1971: Matching Mole so-named, according to Robert Wyatt, Soft Machine in French is Machine Molle which sounds like Matching Mole! You can check-out the Audion Soft Machine article for more on the roots of this. Robert's new choice band was himself (drums, vocals), with David Sinclair (keyboards) from Caravan, Phil Miller (guitar) from Delivery and Bill MacCormick (bass) from Quiet Sun.

Matching Mole were incredibly productive for a band that existed for less than a year, issuing 2 studio albums at the time, a number of radio sessions/appearances, tours of the UK, France, Holland, etc., now documented by 6 CD's worth of officially released material! Yet, even before the completion of the eponymous debut LP, David Sinclair had ceased to be a full time member, and was replaced by Dave McRae of Nucleus.

From my own experience, although I now deem MATCHING MOLE a fascinating record, it is flawed. Starting with the lamentful love song O Caroline it totally threw me when I first asked to listen to some of it in a local record shop. Thus I was convinced for years (backed up by his Yesterday Man on Virgin's "V" sampler) that I didn't like Robert Wyatt as a singer! I still think it's a weak start, but after that it's never less than magic. What we have is a virtual suite of interlocked themes and diversions, all with great titles like Instant Pussy, Dedicated To Hugh, But You Weren't Listening or Beer As A Braindeer amongst them. A Soft Machine meets Caravan and Egg mixture it mostly is, but with that added pazazz of Phil Miller's uniquely sizzly guitar, and the added surprise of Robert playing lots of highly processed Mellotron! David Sinclair's patent fuzz/distorted organ also features a lot. Yet we also have a lot of intricate mellow sections with electric piano and guitar weaving patterns against occasionally explosive flurries of percussion. There's obviously some Quiet Sun influence in there too, but that band was always a hard one to quantify! It's all the start of a brand new sound taking form.

The more documented line-up is that which recorded the second album: LITTLE RED RECORD. Whereas the debut was largely penned by Robert Wyatt, here much of the material is penned by the other members, which explains why it is quite different. The sound is tighter, much more episodic, and with a good few memorable tunes that worm their way into the brain. More humour too, like the prostitute tale Nan True's Hole and the deliberately dour but poignant God Song - islands in a complex tapestry of innovation.

If I go on much more here I'll be repeating my past Audion reviews. But it's safe to say that the Cuneiform releases SMOKE SIGNALS (sessions and live) and MARCH (live, March 1972) add up to yet more essential listening, and there's the various radio sessions, demos, etc. I've also encountered some well-dodgy bootlegs that, whilst musically excellent, prove that Robert wasn't the most reliable of vocalists! An amusing thought, in that it is said that Robert left Soft Machine to be more than just a drummer, he ended up with a new band that his role in concert was mostly as the drummer!

Matching Mole

Quite why Matching Mole broke up in September 1972 we don't know. It could have something to do with Phil Miller leading a double life in the reformed Delivery (more about that below). Based on the BBC session of Robert Wyatt & Francis Monkman from December 1972, Robert indeed wanted to be more vocal. Another project: WMWM (Wyatt, McRae, Windo, Matthewson) said to be free jazz, also almost led to a new Matching Mole incarnation, however that idea was cut short in June 1973 after Robert fell from a third floor window during a party in London, leaving him paralysed from the waist down. But I digress, back to the Delivery story....

Delivery #2

To give this article some logic we now have to step back a bit, and retrace what had also been happening whilst Matching Mole were around. Steve Miller had joined Caravan, and features on their WATERLOO LILY album, where Delivery members: Lol Coxhill and Phil Miller also featured as guests. You can certainly hear the Delivery influence in Caravan at this time and hear that something new was cooking. That was obviously the interaction between Steve Miller and Richard Sinclair, which led to them splitting off and creating a new project under the Delivery name. Completing this line-up was Pip Pyle (back again after extensive work with Gong, and short stays in Paul Jones Group and All Wet And Dripping - both undocumented) and Phil Miller (in between gigs and sessions with Matching Mole).

The only official document of Delivery #2 that I know of is One For You included as a bonus on the Cuneiform CD reissue, which feels more like Caravan than Delivery really. Two live documents are known to me (others exist), the first being an outdoor gig at the Tower Of London Moat (21 July 1972) which includes a mixture of Delivery material, two Matching Mole numbers, and other new numbers in their embryonic state, like the Pip Pyle penned Shaving Is Boring and the vibrant Finesse Is For Fairies. The final Delivery gig, at the Brighton Dome (29 September) featured a similar set including a version of Waterloo Lily and is notable for Gong's Didier Malherbe as guest winds player.

Delivery reformed briefly for a booked session with the BBC in November 1972 with the line-up: Steve Miller, Phil Miller, Lol Coxhill, Roy Babbington, Pip Pyle, and Richard Sinclair After this Steve Miller became more of a musical nomad. He did two odd split albums with Lol Coxhill which I heard back in the late 1970s and never revisited, and also attempted yet another Delivery reformation, with Roy Babbington and Laurie Allan in 1973, but that fell apart when Babbington joined Soft Machine.

Delivery #2 on stage at The Tower of London Moat festival

Hatfield And The North

To Joe Public, the transition of Delivery into Hatfield And The North would have been seamless. In fact many Delivery bootleg recordings are incorrectly labelled as Hatfield And The North on the web. And scarcely a month had gone by with the new band, sans Steve Miller, with Dave Sinclair on keyboards instead. But why Hatfield And The North? Many reasons are given. Some ridiculous, all hearsay, so I won't repeat them here. It was a road sign often seen on the A1 out of London. I just think it fitted their wry sense of humour. Did they ever get any promoters asking to speak to Mr. Hatfield I wonder?

Hatfield And The North from late 1972 are an unknown quantity. I could not find any recorded documentation at all. A logical transition? Maybe. Though the "Hatfields" we know weren't born until Egg's Dave Stewart took over the keyboard role, debuting live with them on 19 January 1973. Combining his eclectic Egg style organ (with electronics, and also a newfound nimble style of electric piano) with the jazzy twisted Caravan meets Matching Mole hybrid, all made for a distinctive new style that (in retrospect) was unmistakable. Many early sessions and archive recordings can now be found on the two excellent anthologies: HATWISE CHOICE and HATTITUDE, giving an insight into how the sound developed and gelled.

As with many such British bands at the time, the only label interested enough to sign them up was Virgin Records. And, with Tom Newman as producer they had all the resources they needed to go the whole hog, and let their imaginations run riot. With 14 tracks in just over 46 minutes HATFIELD AND THE NORTH is a heady complex trip, with tracks ranging from 30 second bridges through to a huge 10 power-drive, and most of it segued together (extensive use of the studio as an instrument too), it's clever, witty and totally engaging. Richard Sinclair here came really into his own as a songwriter too, with lots of clever word-play, and wry witticism the order of the day, I still hear the odd joke hidden in there that I never realised before some 30 odd years on! True, it's like a continuation from songs in Caravan, but here the feel isn't normal songs, but poetry wound around the music, and sometime breaking the rules of the song format altogether. There was also a new twist "The Northettes" namely Amanda Parsons, Barbara Gaskin and Ann Rosenthal, adding extra vocal harmonies in a manner unheard anywhere else. One could say that Phil Miller was so in his element with such a creative brew his guitar so underpins it all, that he occasionally becomes transparent, only rarely startling us with a solo. Well he did have some serious competition with Dave Stewart. And holding it all together was the ever reliable Pip Pyle, also given freedom to be more than just a drummer. And, let's not forget the wonderful track titles like Going Up To People And Tinkling or Lobster In Cleavage Probe to name but two! A stunning album from start to end. Not forgetting the Robert Wyatt guest appearance too.

Many bands would burn-out after such a debut, but their second album THE ROTTERS CLUB was probably even more creative than its predecessor. Well, they hadn't been rushing it, as well over year had passed, which gave them plenty of time to come up with lots of new ideas. A big difference, at least in format, was one side of shorter tracks, contrasting with the second side largely taken up with the 20 minute opus Mumps. But, that said, what is a track on a Hatfields album? Listened to on CD, the whole album tends to feel like a single cleverly compiled opus. A good few guests on this one too including: Jimmy Hastings from Caravan, Lindsay Cooper & Tim Hodgkinson from Henry Cow, and as usual The Northettes!

Hatfield And The North

National Health

The formation of National Health is a weird story. To make sense of it you really need to know about another band, called Gilgamesh. They were another "Canterbury scene" fusion outfit, led by keyboard player Alan Gowen. They existed in various line-ups from 1972-75 (and again in 1977-78) playing a lighter more reflective jazzy music. I was never enamoured with them really, deeming them as a pleasant also ran. Anyway, so the story goes: Hatfield And The North and Gilgamesh played some gigs together as one Octet back in November 1973, and always intended to record together.

In July 1975 Alan Gowen and Dave Stewart re-hatched the idea, causing both the demise of Gilgamesh and Hatfield And The North and the birth of National Health. The actual fusion of the two bands however never lasted for long, with both drummers going awol and Gilgamesh guitarist Phil Lee dropping out a little later. In stepped Bill Bruford, who'd been playing with Gong after leaving King Crimson, with Steve Hillage taking over second guitar role for a while, and Egg's Mont Campbell playing bass for a while before being replaced by Neil Murray from Gilgamesh. For early gigs they also had Amanda Parsons as occasional lead singer.

As time went on National Health whittled down to the quartet of: Dave Stewart, Phil Miller, Neil Murray and Pip Pyle, basically three quarters of Hatfield And The North with a different bassist playing a largely instrumental concoction, sometimes sounding like Egg topped by Phil Miller's guitar, or like a more accessible melodic Henry Cow. Really there were more elements at play in National Health than you could easily identify, lots of weird time signatures, seamless fused elements of classical and jazz musics, avant-rock improv and devilishly complex composition. The debut album didn't appear until well over a year after the bands inception. It's interesting to note that NATIONAL HEALTH is largely penned by Dave Stewart, which explains the many Egg references in the music. Of the four tracks, one Brujo is written by Alan Gowen. He's credited as a guest on the record, and is also co-writer of the closing opus Elephants.

By the time of recording a second album, Neil Murray had been replaced by Henry Cow stalwart John Greaves, taking the band in a more experimental direction. 1978's OF QUEUES AND CURES was much more of a band compositional effort, 6 big tracks (and a little one) 3 by Dave Stewart, and one each by Greaves, Miller and Pyle. Many class it as the last great album of the Canterbury scene, and I wouldn't argue with that! The musicians were all in their element, allowed to be a free thinking and creative as they desired.

In January 1979 we had the surprise of National Health appearing on BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, introduced by Anne Nightingale as "From their second album OF QUEUES & CURES, from National Health a soft dreamy ballad called Collapso which was anything but soft or dreamy, it inspired me to re-investigate the Canterbury scene after several disappointing purchases.

But that wasn't the end of the National Health story, even with the departure of Dave Stewart, back came Alan Gowen, with further new material developed for a third album that never happened. Extracts from two such gigs exist on the CD release PLAYTIME, a gig in France with a unique line-up featuring French jazz guitarist (and one time Art Zoyd member) Alain Eckert, adding a whole new twist to the sound, and an American tour gig where they kind of feel like a more melodic Henry Cow. If you can track down unreleased gigs in the USA and Canada from Autumn 1979, they are well worth the effort, thoroughly creative and quite experimental too. In March 1980 the band split up after failing to get a record deal.

Another CD worth investigating is MISSING PIECES, which mops up a few sessions, rarities and live bits. The early live/session material, mostly from October 1975 and Spring/Summer 1976, includes a lot of compositions that never made it onto actual National Health albums, and with various incarnations/line-ups otherwise also unknown. All this documents a much rocky road of changing line-ups than the LP's would suggest. Also there are some bits from 1979 and a later Stewart/Gaskin 1995 re-recording of the otherwise unpublished Mont Campbell work Starlight On Seaweed. So, although just a taster MISSING PIECES is an apt title for a CD that adds up to an alternative history of the band.

After Alan Gowen died of leukaemia in May 1981, Phil Miller got together a reformed National Health as a tribute to Alan. The album they recorded: D.S. AL CODA was a bit of a damp squib if you ask me, lacking any of the special chemistry that made National Health so good. It also reinforced why I didn't really think so much of Gilgamesh I guess. An oddity, it's a pity they released it under the name National Health marring a Phil Miller / Pip Pyle joint track record of 4 classic albums.

National Health

other projects

Well that may seem like the end of the story. It is the end of the tale of how four bands seemed to transmute one into the other, all with Phil Miller there, and with Pip Pyle most of the time. But there are many more bands in the tangled Canterbury web that have continued through to the present, and here are a few of them...

Soft Heap

Alongside National Health, Alan Gowen and Pip Pyle were also involved in another group in 1979, namely this hybrid super-group with ex Soft Machine members Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper. They made just the one album at the time, which basically sounded like Gilgamesh with saxophone lead instead of guitar. Incidentally, "Heap" was the acronym of Hugh Elton Alan Pip, and the band kept that name even with reformations and changes in personnel.

Rapid Eye Movement

Dave Stewart and Pip Pyle got together again in this oddly named outfit (not to be confused with a similarly named band), who existed 1980-81 mostly gigging in France, with Jakko Jakzyck: guitar, vocals and Rick Biddulph: bass. They played a mixture of what I'd call

left-field pop, mixed with prog and fusion elements. Very varied/patchy based on the live recordings I've encountered, which include versions of Hatfield And The North's Fitter Stoke Has A Bath and odd National Health references.

Gowen, Miller, Sinclair, Tomkins

Phil Miller also had another band with Alan Gowen (prior to his death) who never gained a proper name. Released as by: Alan Gowen, Phil Miller, Richard Sinclair, Trevor Tomkins, BEFORE A WORD IS SAID is a much better epitaph to Gowen than the National Health one, partly revising the spirit of the original National Health idea.

Phil Miller / In Cahoots

After various ad-hoc projects in the 1980s Phil eventually got together his own band, which later became known as In Cahoots. They mostly played modern jazz more than fusion, with at least ten albums involving Hugh Hopper, Fred Baker, Pip Pyle, Pete Lemer, Elton Dean, and others. It seems that Phil has been forever on tour, and in fact a lot of his own releases are live recordings.

Short Wave

This 1992 project saw Phil Miller and Pip Pyle working together again with Didier Malherbe, 20 years on from that last Delivery gig. Completing the line-up is Hugh Hopper on bass. The music feels very modern, unusually so for a live recording, with Phil's guitar playing being the only real clue to who it is, notably a nice instrumental version of Nan's True Hole. Apparently this project led to the formation of Brainville, with Pip and Hugh joined by Daevid Allen and Kramer (also the Hopper Kramer project and other offshoots).

Pip Pyle / Equip Out / Bash

Like Phil Miller, Pip Pyle also had an ongoing band that eventually gained a name. His 7 YEAR ITCH documented various projects from 1981-87, involving a huge cast of talent. His Equip Out project, debuting in 1987 had a more regular line-up, with Pip joined by Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, and one Sophia Domancich on keyboards. Basically Soft Heap again then with a different person in control! Pip Pyle's Bash was an international band featuring French guitarist Patrice Meyer (best-known with Hugh Hopper) whose BELLE ILLUSION documents gigs circa 2002-3. Pip has also played in various reformed versions of Gong over the years, and done lots of session work.

Pyle - Iung - Greaves

A surprisingly offbeat trio, here we have Pip Pyle and John Greaves back together again a couple of decades after National Health, together with one Philippe-Marcel Iung (not Pung, as it looks like) a French eccentric multi-instrumentalist. I was quite enthusiastic about the album THE PIG PART when I reviewed it in Audion, but I think the novelty wore off!

Absolute Zero

Another bizarre short-lived Pip Pyle project, a multi-national, Belgian based trio if I remember right. Their CRASHING ICONS was very much at the weird end of Rock In Opposition.

reformations

Of all the four main bands discussed here, the only one to reform since the 1980s is Hatfield And The North. The 1990 version saw three of the key members together again: Phil Miller, Pip Pyle and Richard Sinclair. Apparently Dave Stewart wasn't interested, so Pip drafted in Sophia Domancich from his Equip Out project. The only document of that incarnation is the rather disappointing gig filmed for TV at Central Studios in Nottingham. To me Sophia's keyboards just didn't fit at all. And Richard seemed uncomfortable (very different to his involvement in the reformed Caravan at the same time). The highlights of the gig were nearly all down to Phil Miller, fascinating to watch in spite of all the weird faces he pulls!

Not until a couple of weeks ago did I know that they reformed again in 2004, this time with Alex Maguire, from Pip Pyle's Bash on keyboards, to coincide with the historical archive CD release HATWISE CHOICE. Apparently they did gigs in the UK, Europe and around the world, but no audio or video documents are to be found at all. It seems that the band called it a day when Pip Pyle was found dead in his hotel room in Paris in 2006, as no way could they draft in anyone else to take over his well-honed role.

from Audion #57, with some slight corrections
The original article also includes album pictures and a discography

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a few examples of Hatfield And The North advertising, lyrics & humour...

 

Mumps (The Alphabet Song)

I have minded my P's and Q's

Tried not to damage any W's

And if I tread upon a B

I'll pick it up and tell it earnestly "I'm sorry!"

Which of course I am

You mustn't upset them, Or badly neglect them

Or else they'll refuse to work for you

I have minded my V's and U's

Tried to prevent them being badly used

And if I tread upon the C

I tend to sink beneath the surface gracefully

As for the task of keeping O's and K's apart

You'd be right to suppose that this is quite an art

I've trod with caution round the J's and Z's

I remain a man of letters to the end

Balancing syllables upon my knees

I've flown through the air with the greatest of E's

I did what you told me to, Now I only have I's for U